U.S. planned layoffs at lowest of the year in April-Challenger

May 02, 2013|Reuters

NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - The number of planned layoffs atU.S. firms fell to their lowest level of the year in April,suggesting slowing economic growth has not translated intosignificant job losses, a report showed on Thursday.

Employers announced 38,121 planned job cuts last month, downnearly 23 percent from 49,255 in March, according to the reportfrom consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. It was thelowest level since last December.

April's layoffs were also down 6 percent from a year ago. Sofar this year, employers have announced 183,162 cuts, justslightly below the 183,653 that were seen in the first fourmonths of last year.

After a pick up in economic growth in the beginning of theyear, recent data suggests the recovery cooled heading into thesecond quarter. U.S. companies hired at their slowest pace inseven months in April, while the jobs report from the governmentdue on Friday is expected to remain lackluster.

Still, the recent slowdown has yet to result in increased orwidespread downsizing, said John Challenger, chief executiveofficer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The retail sector saw the biggest number of job cuts ascompanies reduced 5,897 positions, though that was downsignificantly from March's 16,445 layoffs.

The report comes a day ahead of the U.S. Labor Department'skey jobs report, which is forecast to show the economy created145,000 jobs last month, rebounding from March's disappointing88,000.